At Least I've Got Friends Now
by crazytomboy78
Summary: Tony tells the story of his childhood robot friend. One-shot set after the episode 'Control-Alt-Delete'. WARNING: Contains spoiler alerts!


As Tony stroked the systems chair in relief for its return, he heard Pepper's disappointed voice. He immediately smiled. How could he forget Pepper?

So he snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, causing her to smile.

"Aw, you know I missed you Pep."

Pepper squealed in her head, but on the outside she just smiled and placed her hands over his arms and rested her head on his shoulder behind her.

"What happened? You've been gone for three days! Rhodey, if your mom hadn't been in LA…" Pepper babbled.

"That's what I like to hear…" Tony mumbled to himself. Out of everything, he was almost certain that the thing he missed most was Pepper's nonsense babbling.

"How could I possibly forget my favorite girl?" He said with a smile. **(A/N: Not really what he says, I just thought it'd be cute XD) **He had missed her quirky comments and...well, he couldn't name it all, but he had missed just Pepper being Pepper. Thinking you've lost her was exhausting, especially if it had been for three days. He was just glad he had her back.

Later, they went for some dinner at a downtown restaurant Tony sat back in his seat, resting his hands on the back of his head. The day's events had brought back memories he had, for the most part, forgotten about. The days of his sullen, depressingly lonely childhood came flooding back into his head. Noticing their friend's distress, they asked what was wrong. Tony began retelling the memory, remembering it like yesterday...

~...~

A seven-year-old Tony Stark came casually into his father's office on a bright, sunny summer day and sat at his father's desk as he worked.

"Tony, don't you have any friends you can play with? It's a very nice day outside." Howard asked.

"I don't have friends, dad." Tony explained. Howard sighed. Somehow he knew that'd be his son's response.

"Alright, come on, I've got something we can do."

And so they went to the lab, where Tony watched curiously as Howard invented something for Tony.

A couple hours later, the finished product was a robot.

"Dad, why did you make me a robot?" He asked.

"I'm very busy, today, son, and I can't be distracted any longer. I need you to interact with something your age..." Howard explained. "This is your new friend."

Tony shrugged. "I'll name him Jarvis!" He said happily as he took the robot back to their apartment (accompanied by Trish, of course, and once she got him home he was watched by the babysitter) to show him his room.

And the two did become good friends. As close as a seven year old genius could get to a machine. Tony treated Jarvis as a real friend, and they did everything together. Tony would play tag around the apartment with him when he got bored with showing Jarvis what he had just invented. They would do seven-year-old boy things together all day, so long as Tony wasn't with Howard being homeschooled. (Their sessions didn't last too long, considering Howard could get a weeks' worth of lessons into one short three or four hour session, so Tony usually had most of his day free.)

"Hey Jarvis, wanna play..." Tony said as he ran into the living room, looking for Jarvis. He was stopped when he saw a strange woman and a little boy standing in the doorway next to his father.

"There you are, Tony. I want you to meet James. His mother is working as Stark International's lawyer, and he's having trouble making friends too. He's going to play with you for a few hours." Howard explained as he grabbed the things he needed for work, said goodbye to Tony, and the two left for Stark International.

"Hi. My name is James Rhodes, what's yours?" The little dark-skinned boy explained.

"I'm Anthony. But you can call me Tony." Tony explained as Jarvis came up behind him.

"What's that?" James asked.

"My robot friend. I named him Jarvis." Tony explained. The two were silent for a moment.

"You look like a Rhodey. I think I'll call you Rhodey." Tony said, then proceeding to show Rhodey a few toys he had, and some inventions he had come up with.

~...~

"Wow, so you were seriously friends with a robot? That's depressing!" Pepper said as Tony finished telling the tale.

"Yeah. That was a rough time for dad and I, though. My mom had died like, a year before. We were still trying to deal with life with just the two of us and mom's death kind of caused my social skills to cripple." Tony explained.

"Wow. Your life is sad." Pepper responded. Tony chuckled.

"Thanks, Pep, I know." Tony responded.

"Good thing you have me, then, right?" Pepper said with a smile, causing Tony to chuckle some more. Then realizing what she had said, they both quieted and blushed. Rhodey rolled his eyes, having witnessed the encounter. _Those two sometimes…_

**I'd say that's a decent place to stop. I thought this was cute. And it just makes me want to give poor Tony a hug! Don't you? That's just sad! Anyways, review!**


End file.
